Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Time's Man of the Year

Monday, December 05, 2016

Climate Change

Monday, November 28, 2016

Democrats, Not Trump, Racialize Our Politics

Well written...

Democrats, Not Trump, Racialize Our Politics

A party obsessed with race won't have much luck reaching out to non-elite whites.

Trump's sally during the first Republican primary debate that "this country doesn't have time" for "total political correctness" sent a signal that the reigning presumptions about oppression were finally vulnerable. The message resonated. Democrats will have to do much more than invoke traditional Democratic class warfare to convince non-elite white voters that the party does not see them as one of America's biggest problems.

Monday, November 21, 2016

The glowing dye that could enable liquid-based batteries for powering homes and cars

Researchers at the University at Buffalo say BODIPY – short for boron-dipyrromethene – hides two "unusual" chemical properties that make it a potential candidate for stockpiling energy in a redox flow battery: storing electrons and participating in electron transfer. This discovery is potentially significant because next-gen batteries need to do these two things very well in order to store and deliver energy at grid scale. BODIPY, which is also used as a sensor to identify proteins, is "very good" at performing these functions, say the researchers led by Dr. Timothy Cook and first author Anjula M. Kosswattaarachchi.

Paul Joseph Watson Blasts The MSM: "You're The Experts Of Fake News"

Paul Joseph Watson is eviscerating the mainstream media for spreading an obviously biased list of "fake news" sources compiled by a left-wing assistant professor in an obvious attempt to undermine conservative news outlets.

We wrote about the list a couple days ago as many were actually a target of Melissa "Mish" Zimdars' fake news wrath. To our complete "shock", the list of fake news sources created by the self-described "feminist, activist" who is an avid supporter of numerous "neutral" political groups, like Occupy Wall Street, included several conservative news outlets like Breitbart and InfoWars but somehow missed leftist sites like The Huffington Post which was exposed by WikiLeaks to have been overtly colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign.

As always, here are a couple of our favorite lines though the full clip is a must see.

Oh, and when they say "fake news," that includes any reporting or opinion that contradicts their leftist narrative.

Who gave the mainstream media the right to be judge, jury and executioner of what constitutes "fake news"? All you do is put out fake news. You're the aficionado of fake news. You put out the fake news that Hillary Clinton was 98% likely to win the presidency. You printed out and shipped copies of Newsweek celebrating "Madam President." You put out fake, rigged polls that were proven spectacularly wrong. You create fake narratives like Trump being responsible for violence at his own rallies when it was DNC-funded agitators all along. You're the fucking experts of fake news.

As WikiLeaks exposed, you're a public relations front for the Democratic Party. You lost the argument. You trashed your own credibility. And now you're trying to resurrect it by claiming that everyone that beat you is "fake news". Give me a break.

As a reminded, here is the full list of news outlets deemed "fake" by the snowflake of infinite wisdom, Melissa Zimdars: ...

Conveniently for the mainstream media, she ignored the following list of people who WikiLeaks exposed as having actually colluded with Hillary Clinton's campaign over the course of two years.

Trump supporters brutally beating a black Hillary supporter

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

Meanwhile, As The World Watched The Election... This Happened

India outlaws their largest denomination Rupies. Cashless society...

Plus:

Anyone trying to understand why Hillary lost might take note of the deceit of sending Podesta out to tell her supporters its not over. Then a few minutes later she calls Trump to concede. Even at the bitter end she lied to her own supporters.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has granted voting rights to as many as 60,000 convicted felons just in time for them to register to vote, nearly five times more than previously reported and enough to win the state for his long-time friend, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

McAuliffe sought to allow all of Virginia's estimated 200,000 felons to vote, but state courts said each individual felon's circumstances must be weighed. To get around that, McAuliffe used a mechanical autopen to rapidly sign thousands of letters, as if he had personally reviewed them, even as his office was saying the total was 13,000.

Now, The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned that McAuliffe — who managed Clinton's unsuccessful 2008 presidential campaign — churned out five times as many letters before the registration deadline than publicly claimed.

Virginia's recent political history has seen multiple races that were decided by tiny margins. The 2014 U.S. Senate race, for example, was decided by only 17,000 votes, while the attorney general's race came down to a mere 165 votes.

McAuliffe is a close friend of Hillary and former President Bill Clinton, even personally guaranteeing a loan for the purchase of their Chappaqua, New York, mansion in 1999. He also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee where he was a prodigious fund raiser.The Virginia chief executive claimed to have "no idea" how felons would vote and said he had never thought about it. Clinton's staff emailed him after the 200,000-voters move to call it a "great announcement" and set up a call about it.

McAuliffe also did a major favor for the wife of a senior FBI executive who was running for a Virginia legislative seat at the same time the bureau was investigating Clinton's use of private email addresses and a home-brew server to conduct the official diplomatic business of the U.S.

Virginia officials expressed surprise that McAuliffe had signed so many more letters than previously reported. Registrars and state legislators told TheDCNF they had no idea, and even officers of the state Board of Elections were kept in the dark.

Registrars could look up a felon's status one name at a time in a Secretary of the Commonwealth database, if they had his or her Social Security number, but the system didn't display the total number of those restored.

Lashawnda S. Singleton, spokesman for Virginia's Secretary of the Commonwealth, did not respond to TheDCNF's request for the data.

After TheDCNF asked Clara Belle Wheeler, vice-chairman of the Virginia Board of Elections and a Republican, she was told by Edgardo Cortes, Commissioner of the Department of Elections, that the total was somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000.

"Cortes stated that the names were available to the general registrars thru the Secretary of the Commonwealth's website. He stated that the number was between 50 and 60,000 names. He was unable to be more precise," Wheeler told TheDCNF.

"He assured me that the entire 216,000 felons were not sent voter registration cards. He stated that only those who had completed voter registration forms which were submitted to the general registrars either in paper forms or via the on-line citizen portal were registered to vote. He did not know the number of felons whose rights had been restored who have registered to vote," she said.

Those who received McAuliffe's letter also got voter registration forms with pre-paid return postage. No others in Virginia received such a service.

When TheDCNF pointed out that 60,000 could tip an election, Wheeler said "I am acutely and chronically aware of that." She also noted that McAuliffe has explicitly asked felons to vote for Clinton.

Wheeler said the last-minute, highly unorthodox flood of individual restorations had to be processed by registrars who were already overwhelmed by failing computer systems.

She also said that, while McAuliffe claimed to only be restoring voting rights of felons who had completed their sentences, his use of the autopen might not satisfy the court's specific vetting requirement.

"I think the General Assembly caucus that brought suit made it abundantly clear that you must look at each person and evaluate each individual person's record: have they served their time, have they paid their restoration if it was due, have they finished their probation, are they citizens, have they not been arrested for some other crime," Wheeler said.

"The code of Virginia requires that each person is treated as an individual rather than as a bulk because each individual has a different set of circumstances and those should be evaluated," she said.

Too Stupid To Rule.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Google is using my phone against me to help Dummycrats

Google is using my phone against me in order to get Hildabeast elected.

Not nice!

__Among the latest set of Podesta releases, was the following email sent on April 15, 2014 by Google's Eric Schmidt titled "Notes for a 2016 Democratic Campaign" in which the Google/Alphabet Chairman tells Cheryl Mills that "I have put together my thoughts on the campaign ideas and I have scheduled some meetings in the next few weeks for veterans of the campaign to tell me how to make these ideas better. This is simply a draft but do let me know if this is a helpful process for you all."

While there are numerous curious nuances in the plan, presented below in its entirety, the one section that caught our - and Wikileaks' attention - is the following which implicitly suggests Google planned the creation of a voter tracking database, using smart phones:

Key is the development of a single record for a voter that aggregates all that is known about them. In 2016 smart phones will be used to identify, meet, and update profiles on the voter. A dynamic volunteer can easily speak with a voter and, with their email or other digital handle, get the voter videos and other answers to areas they care about ("the benefits of ACA to you" etc.)

I met with Eric Schmidt tonight. As David reported, he's ready to fund, advise recruit talent, etc. He was more deferential on structure than I expected. Wasn't pushing to run through one of his existing firms. Clearly wants to be head outside advisor, but didn't seem like he wanted to push others out. Clearly wants to get going. He's still in DC tomorrow and would like to meet with you if you are in DC in the afternoon. I think it's worth doing. You around? If you are, and want to meet with him, maybe the four of us can get on t

Another email from February 2015 suggested that the Google Chairman remained active in its collaboration with the Clinton campaign: John Podesta wrote that Eric Schmidt met with HR "about the business he proposes to do with the campaign. He says he's met with HRC" and adds that "FYI. They are donating the Google plane for the Africa trip"

Notes for a 2016 Democratic CampaignEric SchmidtApril 2014

DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT

Here are some comments and observations based on what we saw in the 2012 campaign. If we get started soon, we will be in a very strong position to execute well for 2016.

1. Size, Structure and Timing

Lets assume a total budget of about $1.5Billion, with more than 5000 paid employees and million(s) of volunteers. The entire startup ceases operation four days after November 8, 2016. The structure includes a Chairman or Chairwoman who is the external face of the campaign and a President who is the executive in charge of objectives, measurements, systems and building and managing the organization.

Every day matters as our end date does not change. An official campaign right after midterm elections and a preparatory team assembled now is best.

2. Location

The campaign headquarters will have about a thousand people, mostly young and hardworking and enthusiastic. Its important to have a very large hiring pool (such as Chicago or NYC) from which to choose enthusiastic, smart and low paid permanent employees. DC is a poor choice as its full of distractions and interruptions. Moving the location from DC elsewhere guarantees visitors have taken the time to travel and to help.

The key is a large population of talented people who are dying to work for you. Any outer borough of NYC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston are all good examples of a large, blue state city to base in.

Employees will relocate to participate in the campaign, and will find low cost temporary housing or live with campaign supporters on a donated basis. This worked well in Chicago and can work elsewhere.

The computers will be in the cloud and most likely on Amazon Web services (AWS). All the campaign needs are portable computers, tablets and smart phones along with credit card readers.

3. The pieces of a Campaign

a) The Field

Its important to have strong field leadership, with autonomy and empowerment. Operations talent needs to build the offices, set up the systems, hire the people, and administer what is about 5000 people. Initial modeling will show heavy hiring in the key battleground states. There is plenty of time to set these functions up and build the human systems. The field is about organizing people, voter contact, and get out the vote programs.

For organizing tools, build a simple way to link people and activities as a workflow and let the field manage the system, all cloud based. Build a simple organizing tool with a functioning back-end. Avoid deep integration as the benefits are not worth it. Build on the cloud. Organizing is really about sharing and linking people, and this tool would measure and track all of it.

There are many other crucial early investments needed in the field: determining the precise list of battleground states, doing early polling to confirm initial biases, and maintaining and extending voter protection programs at the state level.

b) The Voter

Key is the development of a single record for a voter that aggregates all that is known about them. In 2016 smart phones will be used to identify, meet, and update profiles on the voter. A dynamic volunteer can easily speak with a voter and, with their email or other digital handle, get the voter videos and other answers to areas they care about ("the benefits of ACA to you" etc.)

The scenario includes a volunteer on a walk list, encountering a potential voter, updating the records real time and deepening contact with the voter and the information we have to offer.

c) Digital

A large group of campaign employees will use digital marketing methods to connect to voters, to offer information, to use social networks to spread good news, and to raise money. Partners like Blue State Digital will do much of the fund raising. A key point is to convert BSD and other partners to pure cloud service offerings to handle the expected crush and load.

d) Media (paid), (earned) and (social), and polling

New tools should be developed to measure reach and impact of paid, earned and social media. The impact of press coverage should be measurable in reach and impact, and TV effectiveness measured by attention and other surveys.

Build tools that measure the rate and spread of stories and rumors, and model how it works and who has the biggest impact. Tools can tell us about the origin of stories and the impact of any venue, person or theme. Connect polling into this in some way.

For each voter, a score is computed ranking probability of the right vote. Analytics can model demographics, social factors and many other attributes of the needed voters. Modeling will tell us what who we need to turn out and why, and studies of effectiveness will let us know what approaches work well. Machine intelligence across the data should identify the most important factors for turnout, and preference.

It should be possible to link the voter records in Van with upcoming databases from companies like Comcast and others for media measurement purposes.

The analytics tools can be built in house or partnered with a set of vendors.

f) Core engineering, voter database and contact with voters online

The database of voters (NGP Van) is a fine starting point for voter records and is maintained by the vendor (and needs to be converted to the cloud). The code developed for 2012 (Narwahl etc.) is unlikely to be used, and replaced by a model where the vendor data is kept in the Van database and intermediate databases are arranged with additional information for a voter.

Quite a bit of software is to be developed to match digital identities with the actual voter file with high confidence. The key unit of the campaign is a "voter", and each and every record is viewable and updatable by volunteers in search of more accurate information.

In the case where we can't identify the specific human, we can still have a partial digital voter id, for a person or "probable-person" with attributes that we can identify and use to target. As they respond we can eventually match to a registered voter in the main file. This digital key is eventually matched to a real person.

The Rules

Its important that all the player in the campaign work at cost and there be no special interests in the financing structure. This means that all vendors work at cost and there is a separate auditing function to ensure no one is profiting unfairly from the campaign. All investments and conflicts of interest would have to be publicly disclosed. The rules of the audit should include caps on individual salaries and no investor profits from the campaign function. (For example, this rule would apply to me.)

The KEY things

a) early build of an integrated development team and recognition that this is an entire system that has to be managed as suchb) decisions to exclusively use cloud solutions for scalability, and choice of vendors and any software from 2012 that will be reused.c) the role of the smart phone in the hands of a volunteer. The smart phone manages the process, updates the database, informs the citizen, and allows fundraising and recruitment of volunteers (on android and iphone).d) early and continued focus of qualifying fundraising dollars to build the field, and build all the tools. Outside money will be plentiful and perfect for TV use. A smart media mix tool tells all we need to know about media placement, TV versus other media and digital media.

Hillary Discovered Stone Drunk at 4:30pm

Hillary Clinton campaign aides had a frantic email exchange in August 2015 over who should call the candidate to "sober her up some" at around 4:30 in the afternoon.

According to documents published by WikiLeaks, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta emailed communications aide Jennifer Palmieri with a question at around 2:00 p.m. "Should I call her and talk this through or better to leave with you?" Podesta wrote. "I'm worried she'll get on with Cheryl [Mills] and we'll end up in a bad place."

Palmieri wrote back more than two hours later with a response: "I think you should call her and sober her up some."

Hillary's problems with alcohol have been well documented and Wikileaks only confirms the reports.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Trump won the third debate - The Washington Post

Even leftists agree!

1996-2016 The Washington Post

Trump won the third debate By Ed Rogers

Donald Trump won tonight's debate. He didn't implode, he didn't blither, he didn't continually interrupt Hillary Clinton and he didn't even sniff much. And, frankly, he had the best retorts and one-liners. Clinton was on her heels much of the night, and several times, she had to reset by resorting to tired, hollow platitudes — which only drove home the point that she lacks authenticity and appears to be a typical politician who is therefore dishonest. That said, Clinton was an able, informed politician, but Trump — for the first time — appeared to be a worthy opponent.

The fact is this is a change election, and Clinton is not the change candidate. People don't really want to vote for her, and tonight, she didn't give them much of a reason to do so. And perhaps Trump put voters more at ease with Trump. Up until this debate, Trump has helped Clinton out by running a campaign that has been a complete misfire — taking the bait, chasing rabbits, insulting women, wallowing in conspiracies and almost consciously avoiding things voters care about. But during this debate, he held his tongue and held his temper. Trump isn't particularly light on his feet, but he was confident and competent talking about the economy. It's a wonder he hasn't talked about the economy during more of the campaign. Anyway, he even showed a much better understanding of geopolitics than I would have thought. He sounded like a Republican on most issues. For Trump, it's too bad there aren't more debates.

Clinton, on the other hand, was overprepared and over-rehearsed. As a result, she missed the bull's eye during much of the night. Clinton's forced smiles during some of Trump's most effective lines, while probably the best she could do, did not fit the moment.

The last Clinton, Trump presidential debate, in three minutes Play Video2:59 The totality of the campaign isn't about this debate. There's a lot of water under the bridge. Trump's performance tonight can't fully rehabilitate him, but it's clear that the media — including me — expected a much worse performance. In fact, the post-debate analysts seem as rattled as Clinton. The press is going to panic over the fact that Trump helped himself, as shown by the immediate obsessing over Trump's "non-commitment" to accepting the election results in November. But for voters watching the debate, that wasn't really much of a focal point. The media wants to bore into it, but in doing so, reporters and commentators are ignoring many of the issues that were actually discussed in a rational fashion thanks to the steady hand of moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.

In politics, good gets better and bad gets worse. Given Trump's performance, I expect to see some stories about panic in the Clinton universe by the time the Sunday shows roll around. Before tonight's debate, the conventional wisdom was that Trump was collapsing — and when conventional wisdom is set this far ahead of election day, the conventional wisdom is often wrong. So, was tonight a game changer? Probably not. But it might shift momentum and keep the race interesting.

Ed Rogers is a contributor to the PostPartisan blog, a political consultant and a veteran of the White House and several national campaigns. He is the chairman of the lobbying and communications firm BGR Group, which he founded with former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in 1991. Follow @EdRogersDC

Monday, October 10, 2016

Make America Hot Again

Today Donald Trump is in Pennsylvania for two post debate campaign rallies. Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence is in North Carolina. The first Trump rally is in Ambridge, PA at Ambridge Area Senior High School Gymnasium. The event is scheduled to begin at 3:00pm EDT: Live Stream Link

Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Hildabeast spoke of the supporters of then-challenger Bernie Sanders, suggesting it was disillusionment with the future — and not any genuine dislike of her — that drove young people to favor the senator from Vermont.

"They're children of the Great Recession," she said, "and they are living in their parents' basement." She added that "if you're feeling like you're consigned to, you know, being a barista…then the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could be part of a political revolution is appealing."

its now been 2 full months since the conventions ended and Donald Trump is CRUSHING Hillary Clinton in event attendance during this period.

This estimate is based on only campaign events scheduled by the candidates and for the most part does not include events where the candidates spoke to participants at other events. Total attendance is based on best estimates and considers over-projections for Hillary rallies by almost all liberal media outlets and lowball estimates by these same affiliates for Trump events. Actually, almost never has the mainstream media commented on the number of participants at these rallies most likely because these numbers are so shocking and devastating for the Hillary campaign. These numbers also do not include fundraisers, debates or TV events. This is only our best estimate for attendance at these rallies. Note that the 12,000 people were turned away at Trump's rally in Florida this week and at other events where Trump set attendance records. These individuals are not included in these estimates but if they were the totals would be even more lopsided.

Since August 1st when both parties' conventions concluded and through the end of September, Trump has had nearly 340,000 people at his events with thousands turned away due to space limitations.He has set records for some of these locations in attendance. However, Hillary has only had 14,000 total at her rallies since August 1st.

To put this in perspective, Trump has had nearly a third of a million (324,000) more people at his rallies than Hillary and 24 times the crowds she has accumulated. Trump turned away 12,000 people Tuesday night alone which was roughly the same amount of people that Hillary had at all her rallies since August 1st through that date!

Trump has participation at his rallies nearly 10 times that of Hillary and Hillary is barely averaging getting in front of 200 people per day at her rallies over this 2 month period.

Shouldn't we be talking about Hillary Clinton's startling proclamation during Monday night's debate that every American has "implicit bias" on race relations?

When asked by moderator Lester Holt (the only time he asked a direct and exclusive question of the Democratic Party's nominee) "Do you believe that police are implicitly biased against black people?" Clinton didn't just throw cops under the racist bus, she threw us all under:

Lester, I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone. Not just police. I think unfortunately too many of us in our great country, um, jump to conclusions about each other. And therefore I think we need all of us to be asking ourselves hard questions about, you know, why am I feeling this way.

This startling accusation comes just weeks after referring to "half" of Donald Trump supporters as members of a "basket of deplorables" who are "irredeemable" in her eyes. And yet, the comment has largely gone unnoticed.

But, on closer parsing of her remarkable statement, it's important to note that she made much more than an accusation in this pandering response to Holt, she made an admission.

Lester, I think implicit bias is a problem for everyone… I think weneed all of us to be asking ourselveshard questions about, you know, why am I feeling this way.

Wednesday, September 07, 2016

That look of love...

Monday, August 29, 2016

Trump By A Landslide?

Memo to Clinton supporters: if you want to persuade the American public the nation is going in the right direction, you'll have to actually change the direction rather than just promise more of the same.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Hillary tries to toss black guy under the bus

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has had enough. Since the Hillary Clinton email scandal first surfaced, she and her team of apologists have been bringing up Gen. Colin Powell ….

"Clinton did nothing different than what Colin Powell did," was the constant refrain from Hillary's defenders. Of course, that argument has been completely destroyed by the facts. …

Last Friday, … Hillary raised the stake on her scapegoating of Powell by claiming that Powell gave her the idea to use a private server int he first place. … "Her people have been trying to pin it on me," … "The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did," Powell added. Why does the former diplomat believe this to be the case? "Why do you think?"

"Regretful" Trump Reaches Out To Latino Leaders: "No, I Am Not Flip-Flopping" [feedly]

What have you got to lose?

During the reign of the first black president, white youth unemployment has plunged from 19.0% to just 14.1%; while black youth unemployment has barely budged at 31.2% (from 32.8%) - more than double that of whites.

As Trump said:

"Look at how much African American communities have suffered under Democratic control," Trump said to his supporters.

"To those hurting, I say, 'What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?' You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"

He insisted at rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan that he would do a better job than Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, at creating jobs and improving schools for black families.

On Saturday, he focused on Latino voters.

In a round table discussion with his campaign's Hispanic advisory council at Trump Tower in New York, the real estate mogul talked about creating jobs and his plans to limit immigration, according to attendees.

Colorado State Rep. Clarice Navarro, a member of the council who attended the meeting, said Trump heard the group's concerns.

"It's about jobs, jobs, jobs, and he really listened," said Navarro, a Republican. "I've always felt he does care about the Latino community and now it's on us to get him elected."

During the meeting Trump also suggested he is interested in figuring out a "humane and efficient" manner to deal with immigrants in the country illegally, according to BuzzFeed.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Reporter: I’m leaving Milwaukee because white people are being threatened and attacked

0bama's America.

Thanks 0bama... For dividing us !==

Monday morning an independent reporter named Tim Pool announced he would no longer cover events in Milwaukee after witnessing white reporters being harassed and seeing a white man shot in the neck. Pool posted a video explaining his decision on You Tube.

"Upon arriving here one of the first things we hear is the crowd getting angry and saying 'what are these white people doing here?'" Pool said. Pool says he took it as a sign locals were angry but didn't assume that meant it was unsafe for him to continue to cover events.

"Things started to get really tense later in the night when people started screaming 'fuck white people,' 'white people suck'," Pool said. He continued," A reporter was grabbed by some locals and threatened and told to leave."

Pool's concern peaked when he saw a white man who had been shot in the neck and was then extracted from the crowd by police.

He concludes, "I know that people on both sides of the political spectrum kind of have a different definition of what racism is but when you hear a group directing their anger and hate towards white people and seeing several white people being attacked and then finally an 18-year-old white kid is shot in the neck that's when I'm like 'okay, I shouldn't be here.'"

Buzzfeed published a story Tuesday recounting Pool's decision to leave the city and also backing up his description of the danger to reporters, especially white reporters:

On Sunday evening, as several large crowds gathered for vigils, the environment turned from peaceful to hostile. "Fuck off," some people shouted at BuzzFeed News. "What the fuck's that white guy doing here?" another said.

Protesters also threatened a number of journalists, particularly white reporters. Near a police line, angry men promised to "beat your white ass" and warned to "get the fuck out of here."

One of Buzzfeed's correspondents was even involved in a car chase with a group of men in a Suburban:

Later in the evening, a group of men in a large SUV followed a BuzzFeed News correspondent to a hotel north of downtown Milwaukee. At a red light, three men jumped out of their Chevrolet Suburban and began rushing toward the car. After a brief car chase through a neighborhood he arrived safely back at his hotel where an armed guard was stationed and the SUV drove off.

The riots in Milwaukee began Saturday after 23-year-old Sylville Smith was shot and killed by a police officer. Police say the officer who shot Smith is black and was wearing a body camera at the time. Video of the shooting has not been released yet but police say it clearly shows Smith was carrying a gun in his hand.

Thursday, August 04, 2016

A fair person who will not hesitate to act is one of Donald Trump's greatest assets

As a political outsider and successful businessman, Donald J. Trump is the best choice for president amongst all the leading contenders. His energy and optimism for our future as well as his platform and policy measures not only will convince more voters to tally their vote for his candidacy, but will guide our nation back to a fuller recovery and greater prosperity for everyone without the need for false hope. He has personality and gravitas, and uses it in effective ways to attack his competitors in ways that sometimes has even them apologizing. Many in the press are appalled and enthralled by his personality at the same time, almost like a love-hate relationship. He uses this popularity to effectively garner more support without the need to spend a lot on his own for advertising, the media provides much air time in interviews far beyond the others.

In order to predict the future, sometimes it is necessary to look to the past, to learn effective lessons. When we look at all the recent examples of popular presidents, we see of course President Obama, who's sheer personality and magnetism, and message of hope and change propelled him to the presidency. He has steered a steady course of government programs like the ACA which provides health care for 8 million individuals in 2014 (*1)., Under Obama's administration the economy has avoided deep recessions, although some critics say the economic growth is anemic(*2). More importantly, many of the of his economic growth figures are artificial because his administration relies on the Federal Reserve (Quantitative Easing or QE) to print money which in turn it uses to buy stocks and bonds, which artificially pushes up the prices of Stocks even though many companies have not shown fundamentals that would usually be the gauge for stock increases(*3).

All of these actions by the government to artificially keep interest rates low and inflate stocks adds to the bottom line of the rich and big corporations at the expense of the middle class and small business (*4). The numbers released by his Bureau of Labor Statistics on unemployment are accurate but misleading, because it does not show the number of people out of the labor force at a record 94 million Americans and the labor force participation rate stayed stuck at 62.6 percent, a 38-year low(*5). And a significant increase, 21.3 percent of the U.S. population participates in government assistance programs each month under Obama(*6).

These economic factors are exactly the kind of thing that were tackled quite differently under another President from the past: President Reagan. His economic policy was different in that he spurred economic growth in a dynamic economy by reducing the rate of taxation, simplifying the tax code(*7). As a result, income tax revenue to the government grew by 58% under his two terms(*8), and continued to spur growth well beyond his presidency. Although Reagan helped the economy, he was stymied by congress and the bureaucracy in actually limiting the size and rapid growth of government (*9).

What happened afterward? Congress came back years later, re-complicated the tax code by making it complex again to the point that the average American can't even do their own tax return(*10)(*11). Burdens on small business increased to this day such that small business can't compete or find it too costly because of over-regulation(*12). Today there exists a culture many term Crony-Capitalism, where big corporations are in bed with the government(*13) and this form of soft tyranny in the form of high taxes and regulations that proliferates and benefits a small few at the top of the income spectrum(*14).

The poor have been helped with government handouts, yet what they really need is a hand up, not a hand out(*15). The free market is where they should look so that they have more opportunities to provide for themselves. This is the American way of those who founded this nation, this is the way we need to fully recover into the future. Many jobs were lost and never return because of the loss of many small businesses(*16). It is only the hand of government preventing a bigger recovery.(*7)

Donald Trump has tapped into two aspects of history in his quest for office. First, just like President Obama, he is appealing to many across America for a kind of hope and change, yet not in terms of what government can do for you, but rather for what we all can do for ourselves, after the burdensome hand of government is taken from the the picture. In his own words: "Any system that penalizes success and accomplishment is wrong. Any system that discourages work, discourages productivity, discourages economic progress, is wrong. If, on the other hand, you reduce tax rates and allow people to spend or save more of what they earn, they'll be more industrious; they'll have more incentive to work hard, and money they earn will add fuel to the great economic machine that energizes our national progress. The result: more prosperity for all—and more revenue for government."(*17)

Much like Reagan before, Trump is promising to reduce regulation and taxation and bring back jobs(*18). He's promised to bring back jobs from other countries, and in some cases will employ tough negotiating tactics to convince other countries to do better trade deals and prevent big American corporations from moving manufacturing abroad(*19). How do we know he is good at this: He's done in in the free market. By reading a largely instructive book he has written years ago called "The Art of the Deal"(*20) we can glean a large degree of the tactics he will leverage this time to benefit the American people. He's done it and now promises to do so as the president and on our behalf.

Trumps is propelled to the top of the polls because many see him as a political outsider. Many are fed up with both parties in our two party system.(*21) The so-called "Inside the Beltway" politicians (meaning Washington D.C.) seem to many in the heartland as spending so long in Washington that they have lost touch with the average American(*22). They see these ruling class establishment politicians as more concerned with promoting their own careers and agendas than with helping their constituents.(*23) Many are in Washington for years and decades. Without term limits, they use the power of incumbency to easily get re-elected. It seems to have come to a boiling point where now the outsider seems to have the best chance, especially with fly-over country which often supports the Republican party, but now seems to be looking for outsiders like Trump and Ben Carson.

However Donald Trump has the edge over Mr. Carson. He's good at making deals(*20). He claims, and many believe that this will help are economy,(*18) and the economy is first and foremost, for without that we won't be able to afford anything else. An advisor to President Clinton in his campaign once said: "It's the economy stupid."(*24) That rang true with the voters, and will do so again in the upcoming presidential year. The idea that we must and will concentrate of finding the best ways to promote the economy seems to be the theme that will carry any campaign in the current economic climate. What no politician inside the beltway will tell you is that actually getting government out of the way that will create the greatest growth. This is the theme that political outsider Donald Trump is running on.(*25)

Trump first propelled himself in popularity by discussing a subject that has been taboo to others in Washington: Illegal immigration. As Trump puts it, he is all for 'legal' immigration, but as we do have laws set in stone in this country, we should abide by them and prevent people from entering this country without a proper green card and permission to do so. As a consequence to this, much violent crime has accompanies the advent of these undocumented illegal immigrants, and the current administration and congress refuses to follow the law and deport those who are not here legally. This may seem a cruel position, to send people packing, but following the law blindly is a foundation with which this country was founded. Mr. Trump has also stated that he is willing to allow the best and the brightest and the most willing to do honest work the opportunity to return 'legally' to the U.S.A., but it must be done legally. (*26)

This platform is only his. He brought it up, and it has broad appeal. Some are turned off on the idea, but a plurality of Americans support this stance. A plurality of Americans support enforcing the laws of immigration that are on the books: "A 58 percent majority says the United States needs to enforce the current laws, while 34 percent think the country's immigration laws need to be completely overhauled."(*27). Other countries, Mexico included, have much stricter immigration laws. If you enter Mexico illegally, they will enforce their laws without hesitation(*28). Being an adult means facing difficult issues. This is difficult because it seems cruel, but in reality being returned the country of origin is not at all cruel, and one has the right to apply for entry with a legal green-card. The benefit of his stance is that we will effectively deal with much violent crime that has entered our country because of illegal immigration.

Having a broad appeal, and being a fair person who will not hesitate to act are Donald Trump's greatest assets. He's not a waffler, he doesn't stick his finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing before he decides to act. He acts and will based on the greatest benefit to those he represents, whether in business, or on behalf of the American public. He will make a great president.

Note: This is the quote for citation 7, it IS a simplification of the tax code. Not only that, but it shows that after Reagan the tax code became higher and more complex again::

Some of the laws major achievements were:

The reduction of the top marginal individual income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent

A reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent

Reducing the total number of income brackets from 14 to 2

While Reagan achieved a significant victory with his reforms, they did not far outlive his presidency. Starting with President H.W. Bush, the top marginal tax rate was raised from 28 percent to 31 percent. President Clinton took it a step further raising the top rate to 39.6 percent. After a brief stint at 35 percent under President George W. Bush, President Obama returned the rate to 39.6 percent.